Bertha, Me & My Uncle, Deal, Jack Straw, Scarlet Begonias, Promised Land, Loser, El Paso, Row Jimmy, Weather Report Suite Prelude-> Weather Report Suite Part 1-> Let It Grow, Tennessee Jed, Around & Around Phil & Ned*, Big River, Sugaree, Mexicali Blues, Mississippi Half Step-> It Must Have Been The Roses, Truckin'-> Wharf Rat-> Sugar Magnolia, Eyes Of The World-> One More Saturday Night, E: U.S. Blues
Reviewer:
Mind Wondrin
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August 11, 2021 (edited)
Subject:
Insane in the membrane
This show was overlooked for many years, due to the iffy AUD which circulated. Today we have a SBD and can discover a hidden gem. This is the middle
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show of a short, seven-show, four-stop tour of Europe, the last tour before the band's then-indefinite hiatus. It comes after one of the best shows ever, and before another high-profile show. The Olympiahalle München was still new, built for the '72 Olympics, and is under the massive tensile membrane, a clear PVC net. We are lucky we have an AUD for the patches - somebody was taping in Bavaria in '74! Don't miss the whole sequence trilogy of Ally Pally>München>Dijon. First Set. The first 4½ songs are AUD-only, but with the right source you can hear the wind-up during Me & My Uncle. Deal, then, is raucous, exciting. Jack Straw is echoey, yet certainly puts Jer in good light - partially because you can't hear Bobby's guitar, and barely Billy. Though it had to grow on me, I dig this Scarlet Begonias from the stand-alone era. The jam section is focused; check all the players as it dips into jazz-combo territory. The next several are not very exciting, nor are they sloppy, just kind of flat. The Weather Report Suite gets better and better. Particularly during Let it Grow, which has so much intricate ensemble work: listen to the back and forth in the last couple minutes. There's a 36sec gap @1:37 in WRS Part 1. The MTX has a skip here, so use the Sir Mick AUD. The boisterous Around & Around is a rock & roll version, to make sure the Bavarians stay for the second half. Second Set. I just can't help but froth over these '74 Big Rivers. Too many are too good. Jer does crazy things in his solos, like here, making up for a lack of a trem bar with a reverse bend mimic. Sugaree is, well, like a '74, but in Mexicali Jer bucks and snarls. An all-time classic version. Half-Step Mississippi is a deluxe edition, uptempo and very active. There's a 33sec reel flip @5:53, but the MTX is patched. Musta Been Roses is the standard '74, but this Truckin' is a must-hear-once (in its entirety). Yes Bobby blows a verse early, but the rest is excellent. The jam slowly gets better, working through several unique little jams (!), until ending with a Mind Left Body jam that down-winds to a Wharf Rat. The SBD is missing the first few secs, and has a cut @13:40 of 3min11sec. The MTX is intact. Sugar Magnolia has an average jam, but a cringey ending. The last 8secs are on the AUD or MTX. Third Set. Whether it's a long encore or a short set, Eyes of the World is so focused, so well-played. Phil stages a couple takeovers, as he does often on this tour. One of the big ones. Saturday Night has some bad vox at the end, but great Jer/Phil. U.S. Blues is punchy and blistering. Note when/how Phil comes in and then how he plays. An all-time top ten. There is a cut @3:02 of 21secs, patched on the MTX. 1st Set: B 2nd Set: B 3rd Set: A Overall = 4⅓ stars HG Highlights: Deal - raucous Scarlet Begonias - solid, then focused dip into jazz-combo territories Let It Grow - intricate back and forth Around & Around - showing Bavaria American R-n-R Big River - frothy '74 Mexicali Blues - bucks and snarls over the border...to Eur Mississippi Half-Step Uptown - deluxe version Eyes of the World - focused & Phil takeover U.S. Blues - arguably year's best SOURCES: The sirmick_32641 is the upgrade of the E74 AUD. It has the complete WRS & Truckin', and runs fast, like all AUD sources, needing -1.5% pitch correction. It makes a good Usborne matrix. The miller_30653 is the upgrade of 28353_sbeok. It still runs slightly fast, the SBD part needing -1%. The AUD portion needs -2%, but the improved sirmick source is better for the non-SBD tracks. Scarlet Begonias is the only song patched (WRS, Truckin' & Sugar Mag are unpatched). You are an American when you go to the bathroom, and you are American when you return. But while there European.
Reviewer:
c-freedom
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June 30, 2018 (edited)
Subject:
I knew without asking,,
Very important to get to the 5 Minute 30 Second point of SCARLET when the SOUNDBOARD kicks in. Thumbs up to the review by Chris U. Notes-Big River to
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open Set Two---Talk about OVERDRIVE! 1/2 Step>Roses-Not the first time and not a full on transition but wow is that an interestingly sweet combo.
Reviewer:
Chris U.
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July 6, 2014 (edited)
Subject:
Yes, I do like this one
The key to finding something dubious about a 1974 soundboard recording is to first take the brown acid. My friends, I can't champion every minute of every
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1974 board recording but I can champion 99% of them. And eventually I will. ;) This is a great show with lots of nice friendly vibes and, other than Phil and Ned, maybe, nary a whiff of The Void. You get a decent sense of the ambience of the hall from the audience recording and then, midway through Scarlet, the board kicks in. The biggest change from the audience is that it's much easier to hear the notes Phil is playing and, for my tastes, Phil was never better recorded than he was in 1973-74. The louder you play this stuff, the more you get out of it (definitely true of a groovy dance tune like Scarlet Begonias!). There's no question that the Dead could play softly when they wanted to ("it's all about the dynamics", my friend reminded me the other day) but when they jammed it was always sufficiently loud that Phil's bass would turn your spine into jelly. So turn it up! Nobody except the band needs to worry about whether the ending is perfect. As is the case with nearly all of the best boards from this era, everybody is mixed pretty evenly and, where the songs call for it (e.g., Row Jimmy) you can hear each note they're playing, as well as the spaces between the notes. Listen to Keith and Bobby's beautiful playing during the guitar solos in the aforementioned RJ! A great version. There is a cut between the first two verses of WRS. This is a relatively laid back version (Bobby's throat was a little tired this night, I think) but the Let it Grow jam after the "rise and fall" verse is beautiful. This isn't one of those versions that evokes the ghost of Pigpen with a shredding Caution jam but something more understated, introspective and melodic. Listen to the ice petal flowers dissolving. That's what the Wall of Sound was all about. I must say I do like Around and Around as a first set closer. This version has great energy without the unnecessary bombast that can weigh it down when it shows up towards the end of the show or as an encore. The Truckin' is played and sung with verve (maybe too much verve, hehehe...) with a great long jam and outro ... around 13:00 Phil and Billy lock into this upstep country thing that they flirt with a couple times before ultimately floating into Wharf Rat on the back of a Phil-shaped beam of golden feedback. 1974 has a surplus of especially fine Wharf Rats and this is another one which includes at least one face-stealing vocal improvisation by Jerry and a sweet mother of a jam after the last verse. Some reviewers have suggested the band pulled out the Eyes->OMSN,US Blues triple encore as some sort of apology for a show poorly performed...? Anything's possible, I suppose. Seems to me they just really enjoyed playing that last set and they wanted to keep going. I'm glad they did.
Reviewer:
GermanShepherd
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April 19, 2013 Subject:
Standard Issue of Awesomeness
Another great one from our boys... a little trouble in Truckin' but mainly smooth & rockin.
Reviewer:
clementinescaboose
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March 16, 2011 (edited)
Subject:
not much to add to Cliff's review
i very much enjoyed this Eyes you recommended CH, and i don't think the Truckin'>MLB, though definitely a bit half-hearted, is all that bad(starts off
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pretty shaky, ends pretty good), but there is little else to say about this one; it's Euro '74 after all...
Reviewer:
Cliff Hucker
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February 15, 2011 Subject:
Difficult listening to this...
Signs that all is not well in Denmark, or in this case Munich appear. Historically the band has played tight, focused shows of high intensity in Germany.
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Not this one! The quality of this performance is clearly well below the previous two shows in London, both in intensity and particularly in execution. Keiths keyboard play is noticably off, and during the first set the band appears to be just going through the motions. I find this music rather difficult to listen to. Both Scarlet Begonias and the WRS are poorly played. The second set is no better. Truckin' sounds just aweful, even the outro jam is disapointing. And while the band tries to pull things together for a Mind Left Body Jam, it's a half-hearted attempt that never really gets off the ground. The band must have been cognicent of how poorly they were playing. Valiantly they regroup for a triple encore; the 14 minute high-energy performance of Eyes of the World is an improvement, as is a very good U.S. Blues, but it's not enough to save this stinker! (87 pts)
Reviewer:
kona_bean
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September 14, 2008 Subject:
The Dead in Germany
This is a good show. I love that the show is AUD > SBD-- right at the peak of Scarlet that board comes in and takes you away. That said, BIG RIVER!!!
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Worth the listen all alone, but that'll persuade you to hear the rest of the show ;)
Reviewer:
Liamfinnegan
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June 6, 2008 Subject:
Don't miss out on this- I am flabbergasted that with all the 74 heads this is not reviewed copiously ... or well
Once you get half way through what is a blistering scarlet, the sound is quite good. The Truckin>jam is not the best of the year, but is really very
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very good- as is the wrs>lig. If this show were performed in any other year it would have more acclaim. This is a good listen in reading the source- some reviewer said it is not a SB- well it does say aud patch through half way in Scarlet- If you have not listened to the SB portion of this, do so today.
Reviewer:
tree-ap
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July 12, 2006 Subject:
another great show
I sometimes use the number of times a show has been downloaded to determine it's "greatness" or whether or not it's a SOUNDBOARD, but learned from this
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one not to pay too much attention to that number. Yes, it's disappointing that the whole show isn't a soundboard recording, but that doesn't detract from the performance AT ALL. I would like to be able to hear DEAL & Jack Straw more clearly though---both were played very well indeed. After listening to DP's from the Alexandra Palace---which has my favorite WRS---and a few of the other shows from this tour, they ALL SMOKED!! The jam after Truckin' seems particularly hot--IMO. It's a shame there weren't more shows played in '74... Overall sound quality comes in at 4.5 stars---the performance is 5 stars. But remember that we ALL "hear" things differently, so don't take my word as anything but a recommendation.
Reviewer:
trip or tweak
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October 24, 2005 Subject:
Patches
Notes: -- Bertha through 5:20 of Scarlet patched from AUD>Rm>Dat>CD. The sbd portion is pretty good quality. Good mix, good levels, low generation.
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Four stars only because of the aud patch.
Reviewer:
Dennisw
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favoritefavorite -
October 18, 2005 Subject:
Soundboard???
After listening to only a the first few tracks, I gotta say it doesn't sound like a soundboard to me.... lots of audience in the mix, and a whole lot of
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reverb... like the band is off in the distance.
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